Greening, 33, made 36 appearances for Forest last season following his arrival from Fulham but new signings Henri Lansbury and Adlene Guedioura have moved ahead of him in the pecking order and on Wednesday he joined the Tykes until January 2, 2013.

"You never say never in football, there's no point in me saying that he's never going to play for Forest again because Jonathan has been a super pro in my time here," said O'Driscoll. "What we don't want to do is shut the door on anything because football is a strange game.

"We are trying to be fair to the boy. He's not played that much and it can be a bit sole destroying if you come into training everyday and you're not playing on Saturday.

"He expressed a wish, when Barnsley came in, that it would be good for him as they want to play him in a midfield role that would suit him at this stage of his career, so it seemed the fair thing to do. I hope he does really well and gains match fitness, so that if I want to recall him and play him then we can do that."